This is 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS' ('BOTB') where you listen to different recordings of the same song and vote for the one you like best. A new Battle gets posted on the 1st and 15th of each month and six days later, on the 7th and 21st, I place my own vote, tally 'em all up and announce the winner.

.

Friend? Foe? Stranger? No matter, ALL are welcome. So pull up a chair, pour yourself 24 oz. of DOG BITE High Gravity Lager (or the poison of your choice) and turn it up to Eleven!

.

[NOTE: Links to the first year of 'BOTB' (#1 - #24) can be found at the very bottom of this page.]

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

.Q: What do you get if you givea six-pack of beer to a German Shepherd?A: A drunken dog.

A man goes into a bar with his dog.
He walks up and asks for a drink. The bartender says, "You
can't bring that dog in here!" The guy, without missing a beat, says
"This is my seeing-eye dog." "Oh, man," the bartender says, "I'm sorry. Here, the first one's on me." The man takes his drink and goes to a
table near the door.

Another guy walks in the bar with a Chihuahua. The first guy sees him,
stops him and says, "You can't bring that dog in here unless you tell the bartender
it's a seeing-eye dog." The second man graciously thanks the first man
and continues to the bar. He orders a drink. The bartender says, "Hey,
you can't bring that dog in here!"

The second man replies, "This is my seeing-eye dog." The bartender says,
"No, I don't think so. They do not have Chihuahuas as seeing-eye dogs." The man pauses for a second and then replies, "What?!?! They gave me a
Chihuahua?!?!"If you missed my last two blog bits about MYLISTOFTOPTENFAVORITEBEERS (WhichGoes"UpToEleven"), you can read them by clicking HERE and HERE (or, HERE and HERE). I included some funny shit stuffs, and a little sumpin' for everyone, even non-beer-drinkers.

But before you go where I've told you to go... (No, not THERE! ...Hell, I wouldn't tell you to go to Hell. Let Glenda Beck burn alone!) ...please stay long enough to enjoy a song (or more) by one of my all-time favorite songwriters of... well... of all time.

You protly won't recognize the name BruceBlackman, but he's the main man responsible for the song that, more than any other, reminds me of my high school years, and ESPECIALLY of my very last day of high school. Why? Because I saw Bruce and his band play this song live during "Grad Nite" at Disneyland, the very night that I graduated from high school in 1977.

Yeah, you don't know Bruce Blackman, but you DEFINITELY know THIS SONG rightHERE!Truth is, Bruce never stopped writing great, Great, GREAT songs. Like, for example, the recently recorded gems 'JIM'S CAFE' and 'DOING NOTHING'. The latter one might very well be my favorite Bruce Blackman song ever. Yes, even better than his gigantic, famous hit. (You and me, too, Bruce! "I need a cold Mojito!")

I lie in my bed and worry my head‘Bout the trouble the world’s going through.I’ve been so distraught. I just had a thought‘Bout what a cowboy can do...

Less thinkin', more drinkin', Throw your troubles away.Today is better than tomorrow, Let’s drink it away

Trailer park princess at the barbecue, She said, "Come on, cowboy, let’s dance!"You gotta lighten up a little bit. You gotta give a good time a chance.We spun around to a tune or two And then she whispered in my ear,"Don’t you know that I’m a perfect girl?I’m gonna show up naked with beer."

Less thinkin', more drinkin', Throw your troubles away.Today is better than tomorrow, Let’s drink it away

A knock-you-naked Margarita mix, It kinda got me in the groove.The only thing I’m feeling now Is desire not to move.A Post-It note stuck to my chest, It said, “Fred, what an awesome night!”I got a Viking helmet on my head,It ain’t mine ‘cause it don’t fit me right.

Less thinkin', more drinkin',Throw your troubles away.Today is better than tomorrow, Let’s drink it away.

If you can lie on the floor without holding on,You ain’t that drunk in the SouthThe only way you gonna get me up Is to kick my ass and shout...

Less thinkin', more drinkin',Throw your troubles away.Today is better than tomorrow,Let’s drink it away.

If you can lie on the floor without holding on,You ain’t that drunk in the South

Link--> BRUCE BLACKMAN'S YouTube ChannelIf you like what you've heard here, consider buying some of Bruce's downloadable tracks, or purchasing his latest compact disc. It comes with my very highest rating of "R" (which is a step up from an A+).

And finally, I leave you with a link to a really wonderful, funny article about Bruce Blackman. Among other things, it explains how he got into music, wrote his most famous song, and how he came to meet his future wife...

"I asked her out twice and she turned me down. So, I said, I'm going to
try one more time. I asked her the third time and she said 'Yes'. ... And that's the girl. It just sounded better to say 'came to
Baltimore from Ole Miss', rather than MS State or Mississippi Delta
Junior College."

Saturday, January 23, 2016

."An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do."~ Dylan Thomas

"I called a detox center - just to see how much it would cost: $13,000 for three and a half weeks! My friends, if you can come up with thirteen grand, you don't have a problem yet!"~ Sam Kinison

The following is a true story, and while you're watching it unwind itself, you might as well listen to Todd Snider singing 'BEERRUN'. It's a live recording. I'm not sure if he had his dog on stage next to him at the time, but very often he does. Well-behaved dog, too! Claps his paws in all the appropriate places and even collects tickets at the door before the show starts. Good boy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyCPhIjmk-sIn my 'Battle Of The Bands' (BOTB) Results post of Jan. 7, 2016, I linked to an
old 'STUFFS' blog bit titled'NOTES FROM AN UNNOTEWORTHY VACATION'.
That blog bit is super-long, but to this day I think it's one of the
best, most entertaining and humorous things I ever posted. It was all
about a vacation that Nappy and I took together to Vegas and Reno in
2008. Below is just one of the stories I told in that blog bit. Remember this, you'll need it later:

Friday, Sept. 19, 2008:

8:00 AM:

We
get a two-for-one deal at the Circus Circus all-you-can-eat breakfast
buffet. While we’re eating, I call Nappy’s attention to an extremely
large woman and I say, “Watch, they’re going to fake a kitchen fire any
second now and tell us everyone has to leave at once.” Nappy says,
“Don’t make fun of people.” Within minutes, he points out a man in the
far booth whom he says looks just like an older version of Alfred E.
Neuman. “Don’t make fun of people,” I tell him.

On the elevator
ride back to our room, a couple gets in with us. She’s tattooed and
stands about 5’5”, weighing maybe 240 pounds; her boyfriend is a couple
of inches shorter and weighs perhaps 15 to 20 pounds less. She gets into
the elevator car and stands next to me in the back. He enters after her
and kind of squeezes in between his girlfriend and myself, and then he
takes her hand in his. I get the distinct impression he’s trying to send
me the message that he’s there to protect her should I get some crazy
idea to grope her inappropriately. And really, forget groping – if I had
even inadvertently brushed up against her while our elevator car was in
free-fall in the shaft as we were plummeting to our deaths, it would
have been “inappropriate.”

When Nappy and I exit the elevator I
say to him, “Now that was an interesting couple.” Nappy says, “I ain’t
sayin’ nothin’. As tempted as I am, I ain’t sayin’ nothin’!” I protest:
“Hey, I didn’t say anything derogatory! All I said was ‘That’s an
interesting couple.’ Interesting can mean a lot of things, so I wasn’t
making fun of them!” But Nappy just reiterates: “I’m tempted, but ain’t
sayin’ nothin’.” I can only laugh… hard!

Last day in Reno, Baaabeee!...

-----------------------------------

On
Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015, I rode my bicycle to the Rail City casino in Reno to
watch some NFL Football and drink some beer..

From the moment I walked in
I could detect a slight burning smell. This wasn't the odor of
cigarettes or even the odor of burning grease in a pan. It was that
peculiar, sharp scent of something like burning carpet fibers or
something like that.

It wasn't really pronounced, but
I noticed it right away. This casino has two different bars, a
restaurant and an all-you-can-eat buffet, and several different gambling
sections. I walked into a totally different section of the casino and
again I could detect that slight sharp smell of fabric (or something
like it) burning. I stood there and looked around at all the people and
no one seemed to be aware of it. The dealers, bartenders, security
guards were all going about their usual business, seemingly oblivious.

I thought: Well, it must be nothing. Maybe I'm just imagining it.

So I found a seat at one of the bars, put some money in the video poker game and ordered a beer.

For
close to 90 minutes I watched football, drank beer, and played a little
video poker. By now I had forgotten all about the odor because I wasn't
smelling it anymore and it was as far from my mind as was October 11,
1967 (Who knows what happened on that day? I might have watched some Roy
Rogers on the boob tube.)

Then SUDDENLY! -
UURRR!-UURRR!-URRR!-UURRR!... Loud alarms are blaring and white lights
throughout the casino come on full blast and are flashing on and off, on
and off. Then a voice comes through the Rail City casino public address
system. He's loudly telling us that there's a fire in the casino and
everyone needs to leave immediately but safely. He keeps repeating the
message while the lights flash and the alarms go
UURRR!-UURRR!-UURRR!-UURRR!

I get off my bar stool and
I start to walk toward the nearest door, but then I remember I have to
ride my bike about 30 minutes to home. And like I said, I'd been renting
beer. There was no way I was going to make that ride unprepared,
without first returning some of the beer I'd rented from the bartender.
So I turned and headed for the restroom first.

I took
care of business, washed my hands, and was walking out of the restroom
when some man behind me said something about the fire alarms and the
evacuation. I didn't pause, but merely glanced back for a moment. (To
this day I'm not sure what he looked like, but I think he was tall and
maybe in his 60s.) And I just said back to him, over my shoulder, "Aww, some fat guy was probably eating too much at the buffet and they decided to close it down."

This
guy behind me started howling with laughter and slapped my back like it
was the funniest thing he'd heard in a very long time.

Moral of the story? It doesn't hurt to prepare your jokes 7 years in advance.

----------------------------------On January 9th, I Emailed the above to my brother, Nappy, which started the textversation that follows...Nappy:Hahahaha. that's hilarious!!!Me:Amazing, huh?Nappy:I'm sure he's told that story to his friends a million times now.Me:Protly he has!Nappy:I was laughing out loud.Me:Better to be lucky than good.Nappy:Yeah. When it's said in real time it's funnier than you and me just joking about it. Thinking of that guy laughing and slapping your back...Me:Thank God I decided to take a leak.Nappy:Thank God you had beer so u would have to take a leak.Me:Yes! Thank God for beer!Nappy:THAT'S the moral of the story.

Me:Methinks yer right.Alright, folks, now that my beer credentials have been established, head on over to PART TWO of this blog bit to discover what I consider to be my Top Ten (plus one) favorite beers of all time. You can get there by scrolling down or by clicking HERE.

On Thursday the 21st, I went to Disneyland-For-Adults, also known as Virginia City, Nevada. (Well, it's the new Disneyland for me, even though the town was founded in the early 1860s and I've been going there since the early 1970s.) I bought a 'Bucket Of Blood' T-shirt...

...I purchased alovely Squeek Steele compact disc ('Old West Saloon Piano - Vol. 1') which includes the mystical Squeek Steele original 'VirginiaCityWaltz' which takes me back to a past life I lived in Virginia City when I was a recently freed Black slave Christian preacher... [Don't ask and I won't tell.]

I had a 601 I.P.A. (and another nearly beer-like beverage which shall not be mentioned). I got to pet 3 nice, old dogs and met a couple cool dudes in an underground saloon that takes cash only. No credit cards, no debit cards, no checks, and they won't serve you beer based on your good looks. I tried that. They said, "No."

All in all, it was a great day and I came home happy. I wasn't as happy as the little girl who was given an official NFL football by the Panthers' running back last weekend, but I was pretty happy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjNLeN4CjZUBut at home I was greeted by 3 pieces of bad news. The test results were in: My sperm count is too low to ever make babies; my girlfriend is pregnant; and I may need hip replacement surgery. (One of those three things may be true, by the way.)

Once upon a time, before old age set in, I was a beer-drinker and a hell-raiser. Today, I drink very little beer and raise no hell. Every dog has his day, and mine was 1982 and '83. I don't remember those days, but I'm told that I had a great time. (All I really remember is tripping and falling head-over-heels down some concrete steps in front of a bowling alley witha bottle of Coors in one hand and a glass of gin & tonic in the other. This gives you some idea of what a class act I've always been. But I still don't feel that I was fully responsible for that little incident. I mean, seriously! Allah's Unholy Trousers! Only an idiotic architect puts steps in front of a bowling alley, which everyone knows is really just a bar with balls!)

There are some things I know a great deal about, and some I don't know nuttin' about. In that second category is The Kardashians. I keep seeing and hearing that name, but without TV service, all I think I know about them is that they're some slutty sisters, or something. They're basically Paris Hilton with more breasts. Is that right? Am I even in the ballpark?

One thing I do know about is beer. My lifelong quest to find the best beer is over and I'm here to report the results. My journey began at about age 14and continued for the next 42 years, and I have finally settled on my Top Ten Favorite Beers.

True, my favorite beer style is probably India Pale Ale (IPA), but a person needs variety in his life, so my list includes at least one beer to fill every need. Sadly, a lot of really excellent beers that I enjoy a great deal were necessarily left off this list, but what can ya do? 'Hop Knot', 'Icky', 'DayTime Ale', 'Odell Red Ale', Track 7'Anniversary Pilsner', to you and your brothers, I apologize. I used you but didn't include you.

I'm certainly no brewski neophyte, and I've tasted most of the most highly praised beers around. Everything from the legendary 'Pliny The Elder' and Stone's 'Ruination Ale' all the way down to Schaefer and Lucky Lager.My boys - beer-drinkers extraordinaire - will remember "The Schaefer Club" as well as the Lucky Lager bottle cap fun:

And if Lucky Lager was good enough for Jimi, it was good enough for me. ...That is until beer got really good and Lucky Lager wasn't good enough anymore.

In my opinion, the Craft Beer thang has gotten out of control at this point, and the blokes who write brew reviews have gotten a bit ridiculous, too. You'll find many of them at the website Beer Advocate, andin 2011, I poked a little fun at them with my blog bit titled (link-->) I DON'T ALWAYS DRINK URINE, BUT WHEN I DO, I PREFER 'DOS EQUIS'.

And believe it or not, little ol' me was once ripped off by some dudes at YouTube. I don't really mind that they stole my idea. I was flattered, actually. But they could have at least given me some public credit for inspiring them to post what they have at YouTube. Here's my original idea...

This is a big, heavy beer in every way. It's 8% ABV (alcohol by volume) and 70 IBU (International Bitterness Units), and when I'm in the mood for it, I love it. But I'm only good for one or two at most of these beers. It's just "too much" for everyday drinking and beer sessions. It's kind of cool though that I can see Interstate 395 from the front door of my house, and I have sipped an IPA 395 while watching the traffic zoom North and South on that highway.

BIG SKY IPABig Sky Brewing Co.Missoula, MontanaBack when my brother Nappy and I were conducting our Blind Beer Taste Tests, BIG SKY IPA won the entire the contest. It is a perfectly balanced (Hops to Malt) ale and may in fact be the perfect brew. Conduct your own Blind Beer Taste Tests and see if BIG SKY IPA doesn't kick booty. It's a champion!

BIG SKY IPA is horribly underrated by beer snobs (aka "website reviewers") because its hop bite is smoothed out by its malt profile, which is outstanding.

You see, there's a certain kind of guy who calls himself a "Hophead". What that usually means is that he craves (or says he does) the hoppiest, most bitter beer he can find. Since there aren't any more sabre-toothed tigers to kill, wars are mostly fought by pushing buttons, and the social engineers have propagandized everyone into falsely believing that women are as tough or tougher than men, men have few ways of proving their "manhood" nowadays. So they have resorted to fighting with food and beer.

The man who will eat chili that's like fire and then stand there with tears pouring out of his inflamed eyes, all red-faced and panting, with smoke rising off his tongue and tell you how much he loves that chili and how "It just can't be hot enough for me!", he's the same sorta guy who will tell you a beer can't be hoppy enough for him. These self-proclaimed "Hopheads" won't be satisfied until they're chewing on a mouthful of raw hops. THAT would be the ultimate beer for them.

Frankly, I think they're all full of it. They're poseurs trying to find a way - ANY way - to prove their manhood in the matriarchy we've become.

For the man who is a "confidentheterosexual" and doesn't feel any need to prove his machismo, there is BIG SKY IPA - a beautifully balanced brew with no pretensions. Possibly perfect.

LAGUNITAS SUCKSLagunitas Brewing Co.Petaluma, CaliforniaFor several years, this was my all-time favorite beer. The story of how it came by that name is funny. I like people and companies that have a self-deprecating sense of humor.

SUCKS, once seasonal and hard to find, is now readily available year 'round. That's because we loved it so much. I guess Lagunitas heard our voices crying in the wilderness and met our demands.

This one almost glows an unearthly orange color, and at 63.21 IBU, this is about as hoppy as I like a beer to be. Granted, IPA 395 clocks in at 70 IBU, but it doesn't seem like it due to the addition of the sage and juniper berry flavors. There was a time when I seemed to like the "Hop Bombs", but I eventually grew tired of the sameness of them. SUCKS is more than bitter enough for me. A hop-forward, high-poweredclassic that, again, I can only drink one or two of in a session.

SIERRA NEVADA OKTOBERFEST - 2015Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.Chico, CaliforniaThis was a "one-time only" seasonal brew in which Sierra Nevada (the company most responsible for the Craft Beer explosion in America today) teamed up with German brewer Brauhaus Riegele to create this malt-forward "festival lager".

If you missed it, you missed out. It ain't comin' back. But, boy, was it great! Honestly, if this were brewed year 'round, it would quite possibly be my regular "go-to" beer. Damned delicious stuffs!

LITTLE SUMPIN' Lagunitas Brewing Co.Petaluma, CaliforniaSimply put, this is a heavy hitter and my all-time favorite Wheat ale. It's got a very distinctive taste and clocks in at 7.50% ABV. You don't want to drink too many. Well,... you WILL want to, but I don't recommend it.

STONE SMOKED PORTERStone Brewing Co.Escondido, CaliforniaI have never tasted a Stout that I liked. Man, if I want chocolate, coffee, and mud mixed, I'll mix my own, thank you very much! And the only Porters I like are all "SMOKED". I love "smoked" anything! Cheeses, peppers, ice cream - you name it. Even as I type these words, I have two different brands of liquid smoke in my refrigerator and I add them to much of what I eat.

As much as I dislike Stouts and Porters, that's how much I DO like Smoked Porters. And I think my favorite is probably by Stone, which is peculiar since I am not a fan of any other Stone beers. But they nailed it with their Smoked Porter. I just wish it was more readily available. The Epic Brewing Company in Salt Lake City also makes an excellent Smoked Porter. It's almost a tie, really. Maybe the slightest edge to Stone, but if I could get a bottle of Epic for a dollar less, that would probably be enough to sway me on that purchase.

CERVEZA CHILEBESOGreat Basin Brewing Co.Reno, NevadaI often say, "I only like coffee-flavored coffee and beer-flavored beer."That's 100% true when it comes to coffee and about 97% true when it comes to beer. There are 3 beers that are exceptions, and Cerveza Chilebeso is a major exception. It's a jalapeno pepper-infused beer with almost no heat. I thought I might like it better with a bit more heat so I added some cayenne powder to it a couple times. What I found was that as the heat increases, the delicate but very pronounced jalapeno pepper flavor begins to fade.

Great Basin brewed this beer with very little heat and got it just right in the process. Unfortunately, CHILEBESO is only a Summer seasonal, but if it were available all year long, I would drink itall year long. Easily my favorite chile pepper flavored beer. In fact, I'm just going to go ahead and call it my favorite beer, period.

ODELL IPAOdell Brewing Co.Fort Collins, ColoradoMy brother Nappy and I had our first Odell IPA at a bar called 'GRANNY'S CLOSET' in Flagstaff, Airheadzona. It was the first time we ever noticed that natural "citrus" flavor that somehow develops in some of the very best IPAs. And Nappy and I became instant fans of the Odell Brewing Company which, today, I still consider excellentand probably the best that Colorado has to offer.

I can say for Odell what I also say for the Deschutes Brewing Company: Everything they make, I like (except when it comes to beer styles I simply don't enjoy, such as Stouts, Porters, Belgian-like ales, etc.)

There are a lot of IPAs out there, but Odell is better than nearly all of them.

PIGEON HEAD PILSNERPigeon Head Brewing Co.Reno, Nevada This is avery crisp, lighter bodied beer for swilling after the lawn has been cut or while playing a game of Wiffle Ball.

Like I said, you need a beer for every occasion, and this is PERFECT for the dog days of Summer. For a lighter bodied beer, it has an exceptionally distinctivetaste that I love. It's a classic beer type with a classic beer flavor profile. My favorite Pilsner without a doubt, created by a small, under-the-radar brewery.

MIRROR POND PALE ALEDeschutes Brewing Co. Bend, OregonThis is an exceptional "go-to" beer. It's a wonderfully balanced, great-tasting pale ale. Deliciously goes with whatever you're eating. And I have often said that THIS is the beer I would use if I were attempting to introduce a macro-beer drinker to craft beers. 'Mirror Pond' is really the perfect bridge between the macro and the micro. The Coors or Bud drinker will enjoy the body and depth of flavor without it being too much of a shock to his system.

If I were still drinking beer on a very regular basis -- and with Sierra Nevada's 'Oktoberfest 2015' gone forever now -- 'Mirror Pond Pale Ale' would protly be my normal "go-to" brew when Cerveza Chilebeso was out of season.

So sorry, 'Summer Shandy'. I really do love ya, but something had to make way for this beautiful Deschutes Pale Ale, and you, my friend, were the low beer on this totem pole.

"Mirror Pond Pale Ale plays well with others."

For Christmas, my friend FAE (you know her!) gave me the book 'The Best Beer In The World'by Mark Dredge, and I've skimmed around in it. A fun, entertaining book. And one passage in particular made me reconsider how I ought to end this Top Ten Favorite Beers list. I realized that my list really needed to go "up to eleven" and conclude with something unlikely but warranted.

On pages 219 and 220, Mark Dredge writes: "The mood of the place and the beer are inseparable from the moment you're in. ... You cannot replicate any place or flavor by sitting on the sofa and cracking open a few bottles. ... Some beers just stick in the memory so clearly because they tasted so good. These beers are often those unforgettable one-off experiences that will likely never be repeated."

Indeed! I'm still crazy after all these beers. But after all these years and all these A-list Craft beers, you want to know which one was my all-time favorite in the way that Mark Dredge described it above?

It was either 1981 or '82 and my friend Dean and I went to Catalina Island to camp out for about 3 days and nights. Dean wasn't old enough to legally drink yet, but I was, and I bought us a six-pack of what was then considered top of the line macro-brew (meaning cheaply made and nationally distributed for America's uninformed, unenlightened taste buds).

Dean and I set up our campsite in Isthmus Cove, then I buried that six-pack in ice in our ice chest, and we went on a strenuous,mostly uphill hike. It was blazing hot and we were tired and sweaty when we got back to camp about three hours later and opened that ice chest.

Both of us sucked down three ice-cold beers each in about 8minutes total time. To this day, no beer ever went down faster or better. My all-time "best beer moment" belongs to...

Yes, HENRYWEINHARD'S 'PRIVATERESERVE'. Sorry, beer snobs, but it's a historical fact and I can't change it. When you're dying for an ice cold beer, it almost doesn't matter what it is - micro or macro, Big Sky IPA or Henry Weinhard's - when any beer will do, any beer will do.

I love the Craft Brewing experience in the U.S. today, but I won't pretend that there's no place in my world for Mickey's Big Mouth. Those, baby, are my roots! I won't deny where I came from.

Wow! All of this beer yak has made me thirsty. ...I need a cold Mojito!

Liberty

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About Me

STEPHEN = The first person known to have been martyred because of their personal testimony of Jesus Christ (Acts 6-7). My foremost allegiance is to my Holy King, Jesus, who has been given all authority in Heaven and on Earth, and to His God who bestowed it upon Him (Matt. 28:18; John 20:17). ----- T. = Thoreau, as in Henry David Thoreau, the writer and staunch abolitionist who, in 1849, penned the classic essay 'Civil Disobedience' wherein he wrote: "I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also." I abhor slavery and injustice in all of their forms! ----- McCARTHY = The Wisconsin Senator, Joseph McCarthy, one of America's greatest heroes, and the most unjustly vilified individual in our country's history! His unappreciated, rebuffed efforts to expose Communist infiltration of our government transformed this embattled man's name into a pejorative catchword: McCarthyism. If you still believe that Joseph McCarthy was the most evil American of the Twentieth Century, educate yourself today. Go to... http://www.knology.net/~bilrum/mccarthy.htm ...and see how you've been misled.